Biden’s shaky debate performance has many Democrats worried about voter perceptions of his ability to carry on.
Bombing the debate is media fodder, if nothing else, and the notion he should drop out of the 2024 presidential race is being ballyhooed by the media and pundits eager for attention.
Completely overlooked in all the noise is that Trump’s performance in the same debate was worse.
Robert Reich (photo, left; profile here), a Clinton labor secretary and now a political commentator, said (here), “If anyone were to doubt the menace of Donald Trump, they had only to watch … Thursday night’s debate.”
Biden entered the 2020 race late, but when he did, he brushed aside the other contenders and marched to the nomination an unstoppable force. Why? People questioned his age then, too, but saw him as the only candidate who could beat Trump and that was their only priority. Policy aims were second place.
Those dynamics haven’t changed four years later, except Biden now has a presidency under his belt, and the Democrats are trying to keep Trump from returning to the White House and bringing a conservative whirlwind with him.
And therein lies the rub, because replacing Biden on the ticket at this stage of the game threatens their chances in November. As in 2020, not just any candidate will do, because too many voters support Trump. But leaving him on the ticket could cost the election too, the argument goes.
As Reich points out, “there are many problems with trying to replace Biden.” First and foremost, it’s up to him. He’s already won the nomination, only he can release his delegates, and Reich has “a hard time seeing this happening” unless his wife and top Democrats persuade him to leave the race.
A second problem, Reich says, is that no other Democrat is as well known, which would put them at a disadvantage and enable Trump, Republicans, and Fox News to define their nominee “in the worst possible ways.”
A third problem is an open convention “would be a chaotic mess,” and likely cost the Democrats the election, as it did in 1968 when LBJ quit the race that spring. There also are the “details about money and organization;” all of the campaign efforts to re-elect Biden would have to be redirected to the new candidate and “totally redesigned.”
Replacing Biden isn’t impossible, Reich says, but will require a “deftness and collaboration” among Democratic party leaders they typically don’t exhibit.
He concludes, “I give it ten days. By then, we’ll know whether Biden will be replaced.” Presumably he means after that, if Biden implodes again, it’ll be too late to do anything about it.